In a wireless communication network, such as a (evolved) long term evolution ((e)LTE) network, discontinuous reception (DRX) is commonly used between a base station and one or more user equipments (UEs) to preserve the battery life of the UEs. For example, during DRX, a UE may switch off its RF module and/or suspend control channel monitoring between data transmissions. The UE may periodically monitor the control channel (e.g., a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH)) with preconfigured ON/OFF cycles based on, for example, the base station's configuration and real traffic pattern. The base station may configure and transmit DRX configuration parameters and timers, such as DRX On Duration Timer (drx-onDurationTimer), DRX Inactivity Timer (drx-InactivityTimer), DRX Retransmission Timer (drx-RetransmissionTimer), DRX Long Cycle Start Offset (drx-LongCycleStartOffset), DRX Short Cycle (drx-ShortCycle), DRX Short Cycle Timer (drx-ShortCycleTimer), and Round-Trip Time Timer (RTT Timer), to the UE.
In order to increase the flexibility on data scheduling in the next generation (e.g., fifth generation (5G) new radio (NR)) wireless communication networks, the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has introduced new designs on forming frame structures and allocating control channels, where not all elements in a frame structure will have a fixed time unit.
Thus, there is a need in the art for devices and methods for flexible DRX operations for the next generation wireless communication networks.